Variations in the subjective experience of depression among three samples of Chinese respondents were investigated by examining the word associations to you-yu, the Chinese equivalent word of depression. Although the more frequent associations were mostly internal affective referencts, two-third of all responses could be interpreted as external referents, physical, behavioural/interpersonal or somatic, rather than internal referents. While there were a number of somatic referent terms, there were virtually no cognitive referent terms among the associations. Implications for the issue of somatization among the Chinese and the concern for emotional restraint in expression among the Chinese in general are discussed.